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Ohio County
Aug. 3, 1973 — The body of Janet Arnold, also known as Peaches Cooper, 19 of Wheeling, was found just off WV 2 near the Brooke County Line. She had been brutally beaten about the face and head by what may have been a two-by-four piece of lumber.
Nov. 25, 1977 — The body of Virginia Clayton was found over a hill not far from the S Bridge. The coroner ruled she died from exposure but police believed someone grabbed her purse and pushed her over the embankment.
June 13, 1977 — Sister Roberta Elam, a 26-year-old postulant nun, was raped and murdered in broad daylight on the grounds of the Mount St. Joseph Convent on Pogue’s Run Road. Read More
Dec, 5, 1978 — Mazura Henry, a 77-year-old great grandmother was raped brutally murdered in her apartment at the former Vineyard Hills public housing complex. Read More
Feb. 13, 1978 — The body of Paul McFarland was found near the Brooke County line. His throat was cut and he had been stabbed eight times.
Jan. 12, 1981 — Anita Kay McLaughlin — 23, 4109 Wood St., Wheeling, worked at the My Club at 2146 Main St. and was murdered in an upstairs room there.
May 2, 1980 — The body of Donald Thomas Michael, 19, of 28 Indiana St. was found over an embankment on Wheeling Creek. He had been shot three times.
March 31, 1978 — The body of Blanch Orum of Tridelphia, was found up against closed garage door at her home. The cause of death is listed as a possible suicide by carbon monoxide poisoning but police believed she has been beaten to death.
Sep. 27, 1986 — Sam Scott, 42, of Triadelphia was murdered on the porch of his home on Mustang Lane in Ohio County.
Aug. 29, 3003 — Family members suspect foul play in the death of Andrew Winkler, 17, whose body was pulled from the Ohio River near Viking Drive in Warwood.
Belmont County
July 4, 2001 — Richard Brill was struck by a vehicle on Black Oak Road between Lafferty and Flushing. Police believe it to be a possible vehicular homicide.
Aug. 29, 1985 — Lori Klempa Davis, 25, was strangled in her Bellaire home. She was three months pregnant and the mother of a two year old. She was found by her husband, Terry A. Davis, who was charged but a jury found him not guilty.
July 11, 2003 — The body of Alfonso Garcia, 62, a migrant farm worker, was found on a dairy farm near Jacobsburg. Police believe he was killed by two other migrant workers who fled to Mexico a few days after the murder.
June 22, 1977 — Joe George, 29, of Bridgeport, was murdered in his home. He bled to death after being shot in the rectum.
April 29, 1994 — The body of 16-year-old Justin Hughes was found in a farm pond near Crescent. He was last seen alive on Barton-Crescent Road by a Belmont County Sheriff deputy during the morning hours of March 13. Read More
April 24, 1974 — Paul Kirk, early 20s, of Barnesville went missing. His car was found outside of Barnesville on Leek Road. He is presumed dead.
March 28, 2001 — The body of Preston A. "Rocky" Lane was found at his Neff's home. He suffered a gunshot wound to the head and he was covered with a blanket.
July 2, 2002 — J. C. McGee was murdered in Bridgeport.
Aug. 2, 1983 — Kerri Melnick, 24, was found in a creek behind Valley Packing. She had blunt force trauma to her abdomen. Read More
Feb. 18, 1982 — Leon Moncer, 21, of Indian Run went missing shortly after finding a note on his mailbox made with cut-out magazine letters saying "Leave It Alone Or You Are Dead".
Dec. 23, 1986 — Charles and Kathryn Murray were killed execution style in their Willow Grove Road home not far from the Ohio Valley Mall. Read More
July, 1977 — The skeletal remains of Jeannie Paglia, 28, were found on the Didion farm off Rt. 800 near Barnesville. She had been reported missing out of Wheeling in June of 1976, where she was last seen talking to a man outside of the McClure Hotel.
Aug. 21, 2000 — Family members suspect foul play in death of Donald Runner, 43, whose body was found in Wheeling Creek at the mouth of the Ohio River in Bridgeport. An autopsy report showed Runner died from blunt impact to the head. Other injuries include a broken neck, internal hemorrhaging, a fractured skull, brain contusions and fractures of several cervical vertebrae.
Oct. 26, 1984 — Leo Salvatore, was shot to death in the driveway of his Lansing home.
Marshall County
1968 (?) – The body of Isabelle Butchko from Moundsville was found by B&O railroad workers over the hill along the narrows portion of Rt. 2 near McMechen.
Aug. 20, 1979 — Ralph Craig's body was found near a bridge along Fish Creek. There were signs that he had been brutally beaten about the face with what may have been a hammer.
On May 30, 1974 — Annita Marie Price left her Benwood home, headed for work. She never made it. Her abandoned car was found along W.Va. 2 between Wheeling and Moundsville and she has never been seen again. Family members believe she was murdered. Read More
On April 1, 1979 — Susan Roush, 15, of Wheeling, was murdered. A scavenger sifting through an illegal garbage dump on Sand Hill Road in Marshall County, near Wheeling Creek Road, found Susan’s fully clothed body under some debris. Read More
July, 1979 — The body of 19-year-old Gary Allen Roxby of McMechen, was found in the Birch Run Reservior in Marshall County.
September, 1977 — The body of Donald Samples of Sherrard was found on Pine Hill.
Jefferson County
Dec.7, 1995 — Barbara Ann Barnes, 13, was walking to school in Steubenville when she went missing. Her body was found on Feb. 22, 1996 in Pennsylvania.
June 22, 1974 — Dan Carpenter, 35, of Piney Fork, was found along Franciscan Way in Steubenville with seven gunshot wounds to the head.
April 20, 1981 — The body of Vicky Dylewski was found in her car after she had been shot to death in the Fernwood State Forest near Wintersville. She was a nurse who had been jogging through the park. Her drivers license was found in a drop box 12 years later.
Sep., 1963 — Mike Kellas, 75, was suffocated with a bedsheet in his mouth as he lay tied on the floor of his Yorkville residence. His house was ransacked.
March 22, 1977 — Daniel LaCross, 31, died of a gun shot would to the chest. The incident happed shortly after midnight on the southbound ramp of Ohio 7 near Brilliant. He is said to have been trying to help a woman who as being beaten along the roadway.
1975 — Kelsie Noble and his housekeeper, Sophia Groch were murdered by a shotgun fired through the window of Noble’s Piney Fork home.
March 31, 1958 — Ignatz Levinski, 74, was shot and bludgeoned to death in his Dunglen farmhouse.
Oct., 1972 — Frank Presutti died of a brain hemorrhage five days after he was found beaten and tortured in a Steubenville parking lot.
1972 — Lawrence Purdy, 60, ran a motel in Wintersville until he was shot to death after reportedly telling two men he could not accommodate them. Four men were seen leaving the scene.
Dec. 11, 1978 — The body of 40-year-old John A. Ryan of Wintersville was found along Jefferson County Road 45. Ryan, a construction worker, had been shot.
July, 1977 — Robert Earl Scott, 78, has not been seen since authorities found his Riddle’s Run home splattered with blood.
1973 — Walter Steiner of Toronto was killed by hit-and-run vehicle in a downtown Steubenville parking lot.
1979 — Richard "Spike" Sterling went missing out of Rayland, OH.
Nov., 1970 — “Mutt” Sweeley died of exposure after an assailant had beaten him and blindfolded him with adhesive tape while they ransacked his isolated home north of Berholz.
Jan., 1968 — Bess Quinn of Mingo Jct. died after being beaten and stabbed three times in an apparent home invasion. The perpetrator tied her with a lamp cord, smashed pictures and gouged walls in the home.
Sep. 9, 1974 — The body of Chester VanHove, 46, was found his in his own car parked in his driveway. He reportedly was scalded with steam or hot water and his body was brutalized.
1972 — Vernon Viola of Mackey Hill in Island Creek Township was beaten to death by an assailant who then burned his house and outbuildings to the ground.
Wetzel County
Feb. 13, 1983 — John and Naomi Beaty of New Martinsvile adopted the dead body of a young woman who's body had been dumped along the road. On Feb. 13, 1983, a passerby found the body lying face down in the snow along U.S. 250, one mile north of Littleton, near the Marshall County line. State Medical Examiner James Frost’s held the body in his Morgantown office for 10 years as the investigation grew cold. Read More
